'DWTS' down to 7 celebrity and pro-dancer couples competing for Mirrorball Trophy

Eight celebrity and pro-dancer couples returned to the ballroom to celebrate Halloween and compete for the coveted Mirrorball Trophy on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” on Monday.

With a spooky Halloween opening number, the celebrities and pro dancers took the audience on a journey from the graveyard to the ballroom, ending with an epic zombie dance number.

For the first time this season, after a round of individual competitive performances, there was an additional round of two Halloween team dances. Each team (Team Trick with James, Ally, Lauren and Hannah and Team Treat with Karamo, Kel, Sean and Kate) of four celebrities and their pro partners competed for more judges’ points, which was added in as part of the final scores of the evening. In the end, Karamo was sent home.

It's “Dance-Off Week” Nov. 4, as the remaining seven celebrity and pro-dancer couples return to the ballroom to compete on the eighth week of the 2019 season live at 8 p.m. EST on ABC (TV-PG, L). Episodes can also be viewed the next day on ABC.com, the ABC app and Hulu.

After a first-round dance to a style they have not performed before, the second round is the dance-off challenge. Two at a time, couples face off against one other on the ballroom floor as they dance head-to-head in the same style at the same time (cha cha, jive or salsa). The winners of each of the three dance-offs will be selected by the judges, and the winning couple from each dance-off will receive two bonus points added to their judges’ totals for the night. One couple will be granted dance-off immunity based on the leaderboard from the previous week and will not have to participate, receiving two bonus points as part of their immunity.

Vying for America’s vote, each couple will dance to a variety of songs including Elle King’s “American Girl,” Linda Ronstadt’s “Heat Wave,” Styx’s “Come Sail Away,” John Legend’s “All of Me” and Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing,” among others. In addition, the dance-off songs include Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine’s “Rhythm is Going to Get You,” C+C Music Factory’s “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)” and Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now.”

This week, the live vote (via abc.com, the ABC app and SMS/text) will be combined with the judges’ scores and tabulated in real time, with the bottom two revealed during the broadcast. The live votes will occur each week only during the live broadcast in the EST/CST time zones (but fans in all U.S. time zones may vote within that window). Judges will decide which celebrity up for elimination stays in the competition and which celebrity’s journey comes to an end.

The couples are (with their dance style) the following:

• Country artist Lauren Alaina and Gleb Savchenko (jive)
• Pop star Ally Brooke and Sasha Farber (jazz Charleston)
• “The Bachelorette” Hannah Brown and Alan Bersten (quickstep)
• “The Office” actress Kate Flannery and Pasha Pashkov (jive)
• Comedian and actor Kel Mitchell and Witney Carson (salsa)
• Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and Lindsay Arnold (jazz)
• TV and film actor James Van Der Beek and Emma Slater (contemporary)

Hosted by two-time Emmy Award-winning hosts Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews, “Dancing with the Stars” is the hit series in which celebrities perform choreographed dance routines that are judged by a panel of renowned ballroom experts, including head judge Len Goodman, and dancers/choreographers Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba.